Illinois should put wildlife over waste

Nothing we use for a few minutes should pollute the Great Lakes, and put wildlife at risk for hundreds of years.

Each year 22 million pounds of plastic enter the Great Lakes, and just over half of that ends up in Lake Michigan. For a bird or fish or turtle, it’s easy to mistake a small piece of plastic for food — especially when there are millions of pieces of plastic floating in the waterways they call home. Too much of that plastic is single-use items that we don’t need.

Polystyrene foam can pollute for centuries

One of the worst forms of plastic pollution is polystyrene foam, the kind used in foam cups and take-out containers. Polystyrene foam breaks apart easily, but it persists in the environment in tiny particles for hundreds of years. Plastic ingested by wildlife can cause them to starve and even tiny particles of plastic can alter the behavior and metabolism of fish. Keeping your takeout hot shouldn’t threaten wildlife for hundreds of years.

A new citizen science report from the Alliance for the Great Lakes found that 86% of litter collected by volunteers during beach cleanups was made at least partially of plastic. It’s time that we stop the flood of plastic pollution into Lake Michigan. We’re supporting a bill which will  require that restaurants and businesses phase out polystyrene foam cups, takeout containers and other foodware.

Eleven states have already phased out foam. We should be next.

Our national network has helped to win policies to reduce waste and plastic pollution in other states. So far states like New Jersey, Colorado and Washington have passed bans on single use foam takeout containers, and other types of wasteful single-use plastics. In fact over ⅓ of the country now lives in a state with some sort of a ban on single-use plastic, but the Midwest is falling behind. Every day that we allow this waste to continue, more and more trash builds up in our rivers and lakes, putting wildlife at risk. 

Illinois legislative leadership and the Governor made a first step last year. Working with partners in the Coalition for Plastic Reduction, we got a bill passed that requires state agencies to phase out their use of polystyrene foam cups and takeout containers. The state government is leading by example in eliminating some of the worst forms of single-use plastic.

Some local communities have also started to take steps to reduce plastic waste from polystyrene foam. In 2020 the city of Chicago considered the Plastics-Free Water ordinance which, among other things, would ban restaurants from selling or providing polystyrene foodware. That effort was unsuccessful, but helped set the stage for the village of Oak Park to be the first municipality in Illinois to ban plastic foam foodware.

At the statewide level, a bill to say farewell to plastic foam foodware passed out of the house in 2023, but it stalled in the senate. To get a statewide foam ban passed in the senate we are going to need to mobilize people all across the state in support of eliminating some of the worst single-use plastics.

There is support across the Prairie State

We need to show legislators that their constituents care about this issue. That’s why we’re knocking on thousands of doors this summer to engage Illinoisans in our work. In doing so, we can show the state senate the overwhelming support there is for ending plastic pollution, and convince them to pass a ban on foam take-out cups and containers in Illinois.

Restaurant owners are also important voices on this issue and many have already decided to ditch foam. Some of those Illinois restaurants like Necessary & Sufficient Coffee in Chicago and Taqueria Z in Edwardsville have shared their support for state legislation. Brent Schwoerer the owner, founder & brewmaster of Engrained Brewing in Springfield testified in 2023 in support of the bill and shared during a rally: “Sustainability is one of our core values at Engrained. I think it just makes complete sense that we should eliminate single-use plastics.”

By saying farewell to foam, we’ll see a difference in cleaner beaches and parks, and we’ll know it’s making a difference to the wildlife in our rivers and lakes.